The Princess (Russian: Княжна, Knyazhna) is a poem by Apollon Maykov first published in the January 1878 issue of The Russian Messenger. It told the story of a young Russian girl belonging to a noble family who joined a group of radical youth fighting against the repressive state. The poem, condemned by the Russian literary left of the time, in retrospect is seen as a strong political statement attacking both the corrupt political system of mid-19th-century Russia, based on serfdom and the violent methods of undermining it, as professed by the 'nihilistic' youth of the time.